This invention is in the field of semiconductor infrared detectors. In particular, it is concerned with those detectors wherein an optical absorbing layer is deposited on a substrate, and wherein the substrate is lattice matched to the layer. The desire has existed for a detector in the 3-5 or 8-14 micron spectral region using a narrow bandgap absorbing material such as HgCdTe or HgZnTe on a wider bandgap substrate. An ideal substrate will not only be lattice matched to the absorbing material, but will have negligable defect density. Unfortunately, no substrate material has been found which satisfies both these requirements. The currently available compound semiconductor materials which may be produced with low defect density are III-V compounds such as InSb or GaAs. Obviously, lattice matching to HgCdTe or HgZnTe is not possible with such compounds. In order to achieve lattice matching with HgCdTe or HgZnTe, one must use II-VI compounds such as ZnCdTe. The defect densities of such II-VI compounds, however, are three orders of magnitude higher than III-V compounds. The instant invention is a solution to this dilemma.